Good Will or Ill Will? Angelina Jolie's Work for the U.N.

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," May 9, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.

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BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the "Personal Story" segment tonight, about 10 years ago, the actor Roger Moore (search) was a U.N. Goodwill ambassador, allegedly looking out for their kids. I write about this in my book, "Who's Looking Out for You?" I personally presented Mr. Moore with a situation where he could have helped some very poor children here in New York City with just a short appearance. He declined.

Now we have actress Angelina Jolie (search) in a similar situation. She's the Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency. Question is, what's she doing?

Joining us now from Washington, Jed Babbin, author of the book, "Inside the Asylum: Why The United Nations and Old Europe Are Worse Than You Think."

Now we've invited Ms. Jolie on this program six times over the course of the two and a half years that she's held this U.N. position. She doesn't come on. In fact, she does very, very little to publicize what she's doing in the U.N. here in the United States.

She's done a couple of MTV interviews, which is like doing nothing. She's done an ABC morning show that nobody watches, on the weekend. And very minor appearances.

So I'm saying to myself, she gets an enormous amount of publicity, this Jolie, all right, but she doesn't publicize exactly what she's doing. And I'm not getting it. Are you?

JED BABBIN, AUTHOR, "INSIDE THE ASYLUM": Well, I think so, Bill. You know it's, you and I grew up in the same kind of pool halls, and I'd call this a two-cushion con.

First off, what she's doing is putting a pretty face on the U.N., which otherwise I think we'd agree is a pretty ugly organization these days. And they are really getting free advertising by putting a pretty human face on the U.N. and trying to divert people from all the other problems that are going on there. More particularly, what she's doing also and, obviously, if she's given the money that she's credited with giving to the U.N., $1 million or so, that is very generous. And she's been very generous with her time.

But if you also look at what's going on with her trips, you see a little bit of a pattern there. Every time she's gone on one of these trips to wherever she's going, Pakistan or so forth, it's just before they start flacking one of her new movies being released. So there's a little bit of a bank shot there, and she's obviously benefiting from her great humanitarian effort.

O'REILLY: There's no question that she's benefiting in the publicity realm, because she's a tabloid queen and gets all of that negative publicity — well, I don't know whether it's negative or not, but certainly, this is all positive. It's all good for her.

But see, I don't know what she's doing. I do know this. We researched her very thoroughly. She's adopted a little Cambodian baby. We applaud that. We think that's a great thing to do.

As you mentioned, she has reportedly given money to the United Nations. I don't know how much money. I don't know what it goes for.

But you I would say this. You know Bono (search), the guy who tries to help the Africans? Bono's all over the place. And Bono says, "Look, this is what we need to do. This is why we need to do it." And he puts his money where his mouth is, and he puts his publicity where his mouth is. You know where he's coming from. And I respect Bono. I think he's a tremendous humanitarian.

I have no idea what this Jolie's doing. I've seen her criticize the United States in her pronouncements overseas. I didn't like that. She won't answer to our questions. She doesn't publicize what she's doing. I have no clue.

And I think that's self-defeating. I mean, if she's trying to do some good, come on every program you can come on and tell us what to do, how to help out.

BABBIN: Well, I think that's the other part of the con that you're talking about right now, is by getting to meet with some of these world leaders and Pakistan and every place else she's going, she gains credibility as a quote-unquote international expert. I mean, quite frankly, she's getting as much exposure to these people as some of the people we've seen in the job of secretary in the state in past years.

But right now, what she's doing is getting her credibility up so that when she does comes out with political statements, they will be regarded more highly because she's had this various exposure.

O'REILLY: Yes, but I don't think anybody thinks she's getting a Ph.D. in political science any time soon. And I don't think that's required. What's required is to publicize a bad situation to help them out.

This guy, [actor] Don Cheadle (search), we invited him on to talk about Darfur. He had a headache. His elbow hurt. He couldn't do it, you know. And as you said, he's got a movie out now, so he's running around. I think Cheadle's a phony.

Roger Moore I know is a phony. And you know, I just don't want these stars to be getting all this good publicity using people. I'm not accusing Jolie of doing that. Jolie may be very sincere, but I don't know what she's doing. I'll give you the last word, sir.

BABBIN: In truth, she's probably not doing a whole lot. I can't see that she's going to go and sit with the president of Pakistan and have much of a diplomatic impact. It's all for show.

O'REILLY: I think we ought to help people that need to be helped. Even if I want to help those people, Jolie isn't telling me how.

Mr. Babbin, thanks very much. We appreciate it. Anybody who wants to know about the U.N., read his book.

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